How to Use Books to Work on Language Development

Books are my favorite materials to use during therapy sessions!  Whether I am working on vocabulary, answering questions, identifying actions in pictures, or nearly anything, I can always rely on a good book to help me out.  Before I had a lot of experience as a mom or an SLP, I wondered why reading to children everyday was so important.  I heard someone say one time that one of the reasons is that children get to hear vocabulary words when reading books that they would most likely not hear during everyday conversation.  We don't live in Africa, and unless we go to a zoo, we probably won't talk about "elephants" unless we are reading about them.  When we read a book about elephants to a child, he sees the picture, hears the word, and possibly learns some other facts about the elephant.  The next time he sees an elephant or hears someone say "elephant", he will have some knowledge of elephants and be able to associate what he has learned in the past with what he is currently seeing.  When reading to your child, be sure to do more than just read the words on the page.  Take time to point to and name the pictures, ask questions, have your child point to pictures that you name.  Many times when my children were very young and would not sit for me to read an entire story, I would go through the book and talk about the pictures or what was happening on the page.  

You can ask your child to show you the red ball or the boy with the blue hat.  You can count bugs or ask your child to tell you the shape of the kite.  You can name pictures and have your child point to them or point to pictures and have your child name them.  You can talk about big and little, tall and short, up and down.  The possibilities are endless! 

Reading books also shows children how to handle a book.  They will learn to open the front cover, turn each page, and how to follow from left to right when reading the words.   They will also hear you reading and learn how fluent reading sounds. 

The best reason for parents to read to children is that children crave one on one attention with their parents.  Reading is such a good opportunity to not only teach them a few things, but also to give them some time with you.  If you don't have time to work on any other skills throughout the day, read a book with your child before bed.  It is so important!
 
Some of my favorite authors of children's books: 

Jan Brett
Eric Carle
Ezra Jack Keats
Margaret Wise Brown
Joy Cowley
Karen Katz
Marc Brown

How to Encourage Kids to Talk

One of the questions that I am asked most by parents and teachers of toddlers and preschoolers is "how can I get Tommy to talk more?"  Some of my answers are listed below:

• Create situations to encourage talking.  For example, I was recently in a preschool classroom during breakfast time.  The teacher gave the children a bowl of cereal with milk, a cup of fruit, and a cup of milk.  She gave all of the other children a spoon.  I told her to withhold the spoon from the child that I was working with.  He looked around at all of the other children eating with their spoons and realized that he did not have one.  He started to point, and the teacher modeled "spoon".  Just like magic, he said, "spoon".  You can do this with lots of situations all day long to encourage language.

• When I was an early intervention SLP, I worked mostly with parents.  Many of them did not have a lot of time throughout the day to just sit and work on language.  I would often tell them that if their child did not ask for anything else during the day, to have one thing that they made the child ask for and to make it nonnegotiable through the day.  An example would be placing a favorite toy on a shelf where the child can see it but not reach it.  When the child points or looks at the toy, the parent models the word.  When the child asks for it, he gets it.  If the child is using signs, that is fine, too, just so he makes an attempt to communicate to get what he wants.  Another thing to remember is to never let your child grab something from your hand without saying the word to get it.  If he tries to grab a car out of your hand, model "car" until he says "car".  Then give it to him.  Seize every opportunity to get him to talk!

• Talk, talk, talk.  Parents and teachers need to talk all day long.  Talk about what you are doing.  Talk about what the child is doing.  Talk about what the dog is doing.  It may seem silly and sometimes like a daunting task, but it gives the child lots of language paired with actions.  During the bedtime routine, you may have a dialogue like this, "Let's brush your teeth.  Open your mouth wide.  Brush, brush, brush!, etc."

• Read, read, read.  We often tell parents at our preschool that if they do not have time to work with their child on anything else during the day to read her a book before bed.  Many skills can be addressed through reading a book.  Children learn new vocabulary, they can point to and name pictures, answer questions, count, name colors, learn book handling skills, and on and on.  While iPads and computers can be useful tools in your child's education, I recommend reading a "real book" with your child.  They need the interaction with you, and they need to learn to know that books have a cover, back, and spine, and to turn the pages.  

There are many other things you can do to help your child talk, but these are great starting points.  Most children with a language delay just need a little encouragement and interaction, and their language skills will blossom.

Welcome!

Welcome!  This blog is to provide information to parents, teachers, and anyone who may be interested in preschool speech/language development.  I will also cover other topics such as development in preschoolers, skills that preschoolers need to master before kindergarten, and ways to help them achieve these skills.  I may also talk about other topics such as autism, sensory issues in children, or general preschool topics.  If you have any questions or topic ideas, please feel free to ask!